Adam Copeland plans to be a fighting champion.
“The Rated-R Superstar” captured his first championship gold in All Elite Wrestling this week, defeating longtime friend turned bitter-rival Christian Cage in their “I Quit” TNT Championship main event at AEW Dynamite this past Wednesday night at the Coca Cola Coliseum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
After the show wrapped up, the WWE Hall of Fame legend spoke with AEW cameras for a post-show digital exclusive interview, during which he issued a “Cope Open Challenge” for the TNT Championship at the upcoming AEW Collision show on Saturday, March 30, 2024 at Budweiser Gardens in London, Ontario, Canada.
“Tonight was the kind of night that you dream of,” Copeland said this past Wednesday night after capturing the TNT Championship. “When you first get into this, when you decide to dedicate your life to this, you dream of nights like this. Your hometown against a man that you’ve known for 40 years, who in my opinion has lost his way. To get to have that kind of match, that war, it wasn’t even a match. Here, to hear that audience, to hear them sing my music to me. Man, to have my family here, to have my buddies from grade school, my buddies from college. It’s one of those nights that I’ll take with me to the grave. To walk away with the TNT Championship finally. I know I had it before for about 30 seconds. So to me, this feels like the first time I’ve properly won a championship since 2011. Man, that’s a long drought. And yeah, tonight, it felt like that chapter’s closed. The book, a 40 year book, for lack of a better way to put it, that 40 year book, that 40 year story, it’s closed.”
Copeland continued, “It’s time to move on. It’s time for me to face some different faces. It’s time for me to defend this TNT championship. I wanna be the type of champion who, if you think you deserve a shot, fine, step up. Right now, I’m sore, I’m a bloody mess. I got the TNT championship. So I tell you what, Collision, London, The Cope Opens back. So anybody who wants to step up, feel free. There’s more at stake now too. There’s this TNT championship. But I don’t plan on losing it anytime soon. So I wish you luck in London. See you soon.”
Check out the complete Adam Copeland digital exclusive interview from this past Wednesday night via the X video embedded below. H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.
EXCLUSIVE! After making Christian Cage utter the words, 'I QUIT', and capturing the TNT Title for the second time, we hear from the NEW TNT Champion Adam Copeland!@RatedRCope | #AEWDynamite pic.twitter.com/CUFyDk2GAj
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) March 21, 2024
